Ituri Rainforest

The Ituri Rainforest is a rainforest located in the Ituri region of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo formerly called Zaire. The forest's name derives from the nearby Ituri River which flows through the rainforest, connecting firstly to the Aruwimi River and finally into the Congo.

Geography

The Ituri Rainforest is about 63,000 square kilometers in area, and is located between 0° and 3°N and 27° and 30° E. Elevation in the Ituri ranges from about 700 m to 1000 m. The average temperature is 31°C (88°F) and the average humidity is about 85% (Wilkie 1987). About one-fifth of the rainforest is made up of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, a World Heritage Site. It is also the home of the Mbutipygmies, one of the hunter-gatherer peoples living in equatorial rainforests characterised by their short height (below one and a half metres, or 59 inches, on average). They were the subject of a study by Colin Turnbull, The Forest People, in 1962.
The Ituri Rain forest was first traversed by Europeans in 1887 by Henry Morton Stanley on his Emin Pasha Relief Expedition.

Ituri Rainforest

The Ituri Rainforest is a rainforest located in the Ituri region of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo formerly called Zaire. The forest's name derives from the nearby Ituri River which flows through the rainforest, connecting firstly to the Aruwimi River and finally into the Congo.

Geography

The Ituri Rainforest is about 63,000 square kilometers in area, and is located between 0° and 3°N and 27° and 30° E. Elevation in the Ituri ranges from about 700 m to 1000 m. The average temperature is 31°C (88°F) and the average humidity is about 85% (Wilkie 1987). About one-fifth of the rainforest is made up of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, a World Heritage Site. It is also the home of the Mbutipygmies, one of the hunter-gatherer peoples living in equatorial rainforests characterised by their short height (below one and a half metres, or 59 inches, on average). They were the subject of a study by Colin Turnbull, The Forest People, in 1962.
The Ituri Rain forest was first traversed by Europeans in 1887 by Henry Morton Stanley on his Emin Pasha Relief Expedition.

The solitary chocolate brown animals with a face resembling a giraffe and zebra-like striped legs are native to the IturiForest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where conflict and human encroachment have reduced their numbers to an estimated 10,000 to 35,000....

These solitary chocolate brown animals with a face resembling a giraffe and zebra-like striped legs are native to the IturiForest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where conflict and human encroachment have reduced their numbers to an estimated 10,000 to 35,000....

These solitary chocolate brown animals with a face resembling a giraffe and zebra-like striped legs hide within the dense greenery of the IturiForest of Democratic Republic of Congo, where conflict and their secretive lives makes studying them a challenge....

“A heart-breaking example of this was in June 2012 when armed rebels attacked the headquarters of a reserve that the zoo supports – the Okapi Faunal Reserve (OFR) in the DRC’s Ituriforest – tragically killing seven people and the 15 okapi being cared for at the station....

Much has been written about the death of a rhino called Sudan... This two-tonne colossus will disappear on our watch, in full view ... Photo. AP ... LucyFarmer ... Supplied ... When I arrived via a series of nerve-racking hops in light aircraft from Nairobi – the last over the closed-canopy Ituriforest inhabited by Pygmies – there was devastating news ... Lucy Farmer ... ....

... and southern Africa, pygmy hippos are much rarer, living solitary, elusive lives in lowland forests, mainly confined to Liberia in West Africa, with small numbers in neighboring countries ... Guests can see the Pygmy hippo calf in its habitat in IturiForest located in Safari Africa....

It is believed that the journalists – one from the US, two Dutch, and one Congolese – were covering a story about the work of the rangers in the forest... “You have to walk hours and hours through the forest...The Okapi Wildlife Reserve, a Unesco world heritage site, occupies one fifth of the Ituriforest in north-east DRC....

The RFO, a World Heritage site, covers nearly 14,000 square kilometres (5,400 square miles), protecting much of the Ituriforest near the borders with South Sudan and Uganda... The reserve has 101 recorded mammal species, 376 types of bird as well as the Ituri and Epulu waterfalls ... The reserve protects 20 percent of the Ituriforest....